Shakti without yukti is a dangerous thing! It is a monster-intelligence.
Energy without the power of discrimination can be fatal. When it is expressed in the outer world, it leads to wars, it gives birth to Hitlers, to terrorism. It results in a purely materialistic society. This is what has happened to Western civilization!
On the spiritual path, this imbalance leads to religious fanaticism and the obsession with siddhi (mystical powers).
All these are expressions of shakti without yukti.
When only yukti is encouraged without shakti, it leads to a passive, unproductive civilization.
This is what has happened in the Eastern cultures!
The people are so accustomed to the idea that everything is a dream that they don't care to make any effort in the material world. Especially in Bharat, you can see, people even look down upon material prosperity.
Don't imagine that this is a sign of spiritual awakening! When a person feels completely fulfilled within, he may not feel the need for outer riches. That is a different matter. But if he just doesn't have the energy to fulfil his desires, it simply means that he is not using his shakti enough.
True intelligence is knowing how to wield both these energies in a balanced manner.
Just as shakti, after a point, gives rise to buddhi, when yukti is awakened, it naturally gives rise to bhakti.
LIVING ENLIGHTENMENT Awakening to your higher intelligence
When you continuously work with this understanding that everything is constantly changing, naturally you hold onto the only thing that will never change – your inner Truth. This single-pointed devotion to Truth is what I call bhakti.
Understand, bhakti is not just simple devotion. It is the surrender born of the ultimate wisdom, out of a clear experiential understanding of the Truth.
If you see the life of Krishna, the gopikas, the women who lived around Krishna, are known as bhaktas (devotees), while the women who lived around Krishna's self-styled rival Shishupala are known as daasis (slaves, or women of pleasure).
Why such different names for two groups of women committing the same act?
Understand, the women who lived around Krishna were perfectly aware that Krishna was a realized being, who was not bound by the pleasures of the senses. Not only that, they themselves had no need for any physical satisfaction from Krishna. They were with him purely for enlightenment.
In Shishupala's case, the women who served him were bound to him only by fear, while he was bound to them by lust. The whole relationship was unconscious, based on fear and greed. It was a relationship based on possession, not on liberation.
Moreover, in the case of the gopikas, their devotion to Krishna was born out of the clear experiential understanding that Krishna (the divine consciousness) was no different from themselves (the individual consciousness). In fact, the entire leela (play)of Krishna and the gopikas is the beautiful play of the Lord and his beloved devotees, the Divine consciousness and the individual consciousness.
Sri Ramaksrishna beautifully calls such supreme devotion as gnana varishtha bhakti – the devotion that surpasses even enlightenment!
You may think, how can there be anything superior to enlightenment?
In the Srimad Bhagavatam (the spiritual text that describes the incarnations of Lord Vishnu), the chapter just before the last speaks about gnana (realizing the Truth).
The final chapter speaks about aashraya (taking refuge in the Truth).
Understand, realizing the Truth is not the final step! Taking refuge in the Truth, surrendering to the Truth and living joyfully in the flow of Truth is the ultimate thing.